Alison Statton

Alison Statton (born March 1958)^[1] is a Welsh singer best known for her work with Young Marble Giants. Fans of the singer have included Kurt Cobain,^[2] Courtney Love, Stephin Merritt, Belle and Sebastian and Renato Russo.

Alison Statton
Statton in 1989
Background information
Born	March 1958 (age 67) Cardiff, Wales
Genres	New wave, post-punk, jazz
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Rough Trade, Les Disques du Crépuscule, Vinyl Japan

Young Marble Giants live at Factory Festival, Nivelles, Belgium, 1 November 2008

Weekend at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, 5 February 1983

Weekend at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, 2 February 1983

Musical career

Born in Cardiff, Statton's career in music began in 1978 as the singer for the band Young Marble Giants.^[3] After Young Marble Giants split up in 1981, she formed the jazz-influenced band Weekend with Simon Emmerson (Booth) and Spike Williams, releasing the album La Varieté in 1982 and a live EP, Live at Ronnie Scott's, the following year.^[3][4]

Statton returned to Cardiff and trained to be a chiropractor while teaching tai chi.^[3]

She returned to music in the late 1980s and released two recordings with the guitarist from Ludus, Ian Devine as 'Devine and Statton', The Prince of Wales (1989) and Cardiffians (1990).^[5][6][7]

After working with Devine, she released several records with Spike in the 1990s, starting with Weekend in Wales (1993).^[5][7][8]

Young Marble Giants reunited for a number of live performances from 2007 to 2015 in Europe, the last one in London at the Royal Festival Hall during the Meltdown Festival curated by David Byrne.

Statton's singing has been called "coolly unadorned",^[5] cool and dispassionate,^[9] and ghostly and fragile,^[10] with a "shy, singsong delivery".^[11] Her vocal style is considered influential on many of the indie pop artists that followed.^[4]

She presently works as a chiropractor.^[12]

Recordings

With Young Marble Giants

• Colossal Youth (1980), Rough Trade
• Salad Days (2000), Vinyl Japan
• Live at the Hurrah (2004), Cherry Red
• Colossal Youth & Collected Works (2007), Domino

With Weekend

• La Variete (1982), Rough Trade
• Live at Ronnie Scott's (1983), Rough Trade
• Archive (2003), Vinyl Japan

Devine and Statton

• The Prince of Wales (1988), Les Disques du Crépuscule
• Cardiffians (1990), Les Disques Du Crépuscule

Alison Statton & Spike

• Weekend in Wales (1993), Vinyl Japan
• Tidal Blues (1994), Vinyl Japan
• Maple Snow (live album, 1995), Vinyl Japan
• The Shady Tree (1997), Vinyl Japan
• Bimini Twist (2018), Tiny Global Productions

Other appearances

• The Gist – Embrace the Herd (1982): vocals on "Clean Bridges"
• Stuart Moxham & The Original Artists – Signal Path (1992): vocals on "Knives (Always Fall)"